Along the California coast, springtime rings with the bellows of massive bull sea lions savagely fighting each other for territories in which to assemble a group of females. Several weeks after the babies are born, the bulls finally become more peaceable.
Perfectly created for seacoast living, the streamlined cow sea lion dives deep into the ocean, feeding on fish, crustaceans, and squid. Suddenly the shadow of a shark appears, and our sea lion flees for her life. Safe on shore, she swivels her hind flippers forward to act as legs. Ignoring the barks and honks of thousands of sea lions sunning themselves on the rocks, her keen sense of smell leads her straight to her very own pup.
After learning to swim, playful baby sea lions become fast, agile acrobats, surfing the waves and leaping powerfully above the water. A few months later, the sea lion pups have been weaned, and females leave on their southward journey. The pups go off to sea about the same time, but do not travel with their mothers.
You will need:
- Pencils: 2B and 4B
- Sketch paper
- Bristol paper
- Kneaded eraser
- Tortillon (blending stump)
- Begin with a 5” x 8” rectangle. Use this to place ovals for the heads and bodies. Draw connecting lines and details.
Now trace your sketch lightly onto Bristol paper. - Fill in the eyes with your 4B pencil, leaving the highlights white. Then use the 2B pencil to outline the white around the eye.
With your 2B pencil, define the shaded areas on the bodies. Detail the flippers with lines and shading. - Work lightly over the entire body, using small circular strokes of your 4B pencil to deepen the tone under the body, along the back of the mother, and around the head and neck of the pup. Define the folds in the neck with highlights and shadows. Soften your shading with the tortillon, but be careful to maintain your highlights.
- With your 2B pencil, add whiskers. Then pinch your kneaded eraser into a wedge to lift out graphite where the whiskers overlap the faces.
- Develop the rock under the sea lions with dark, loose strokes of your 4B pencil, paying special attention to shadows cast by the seals. To keep from distracting the viewer from the sea lions, let’s not make the rock too dark or detailed.
